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The Royal Mint

Although there were mints in London in the Roman and early Anglo-Saxon periods, it was not until Alfred the Great occupied the city in 886 that a continuous history down to the present Royal Mint can be established.

From 1300 until 1811 the Royal Mint was housed between the inner and outer walls of the Tower of London and during this time it is regularly referred to as the Tower Mint.

Early in the 19th century the pressure of work and need to adopt the new steam powered minting machinery saw the mint moved to Little Tower Hill where first production began in 1810.

It was again necessary to re-house the mint with the need to prepare for decimal coins; this time it moved to Llantrisant in South Wales. The first coins were struck there in 1968.

References The Royal Mint, An Outline History, London 1977 Dyer, G.P. Royal Sovereign 1489-1989, Royal Mint Publications, London 1989 Cooper, Denis R. The Art and Craft of Coinmaking, Spink & Sons, London, 1988 Annual Reports of the Royal Mint Challis, C. E., A New History of The Royal Mint, Cambridge University Press, 1992 http://www.royalmint.com/Corporate/History/TheRoyalMint/llantrisant.aspx